India will soon be home to two state-of-art airport-like Railway Stations – one in Madhya Pradesh’s Habibganj and the second one in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar which are part of the central government’s one lakh crore rupee station redevelopment program to speed up modernisation of the Indian Railways.

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Almost nine-months from now, India will have its first two state-of-art airport-like railway stations consisting of high-tech infrastructural design and facilities. Two neighbouring states Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat will witness the launch of two high-tech railway stations by January 2019 – one in Habibganj in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The “airport-like” railway stations are part of the Central Government’s ambitious 1.1 lakh crore rupee station redevelopment program which will give a booster to the modernisation process of Indian Railways.

Both the high-tech railway stations will have amenities like 600 additional waiting benches, cleaner toilets, retail areas where one can shop just like in airports. The infrastructure will be ultra-modern consisting of glass dome-like structure and have facilities such as food plazas and cafeterias and a plush waiting lounge. Besides this, the Indian Railways is also considering to include other entertainment options like video-game zones and virtual museums. The entire project of two lux railway stations are likely to be completed within two years, since the foundation stone was laid in January 2017.

Indian Railway Station Development Corporation (IRSDC) Managing Director and CEO S K Lohia has claimed that Gujarat’s Gandhinagar railway station will be complete by January 2019 and will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whereas the Madhya Pradesh Habibganj railway station will be completed by December 2018, a month earlier than Gujarat. Once complete, the responsibility of the maintenance and revenue generation of both these projects lies with the IRSDC. The estimated cost of maintenance of the Habibganj station will be in the range of Rs 4-5 crore and the estimated revenue will be between Rs 6.5 to Rs 7 crore per annum. The profits generated from these railway stations will be invested in further development and maintenance of both modern stations. It will be an epitome of modernisation of the gigantic Indian Railways network and infrastructure.